Psyche, spirit or soul?
Before I head back into the subject of Eros and psychotherapy, I want to investigate the confusion in meanings attributed to the concepts of soul and spirit. We are shaped by the beliefs embedded in our language, so it is worth taking a look at the ideas underpinning our experience of being human. Not least because I find it difficult to understand the difference between spirit and soul. So many writers have used the term soul for both - or spirit for both! So let's start where I left off in my last post. In Jungian thought, we have soul (sulphur) and spirit (Mercury). Sulphur is Soul, the seat of desire, fiery and alive, It is the ability to act. It is energy. Think of it as inner fire. Mercury is Spirit, it is changeable, communicative, reflective. It is 'the world-creating spark hidden within all matter'. Think of it as the light of enlightenment . For it interfaces soul and body and enables consciousness. The mode of communication created by spirit is imagination, the c...